Apparatus and method for extracting and sharing information

ABSTRACT

A message exchange unit receives and distributes a message in a community in which a plurality of users participates. A message memory stores the message received by the message exchange unit. An extraction rule memory stores an extraction rule applicable for the message. The extraction rule includes an extraction pattern, an extraction target and a display format. An information extraction unit extracts information from the message stored in the message memory by referring to the extraction rule. An extraction result memory stores extraction result information by the information extraction unit. An extraction result editing unit edits the extraction result information stored in the extraction result memory. A message generation unit generates another message representing editing of the extraction result information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No.10/384,603, filed Mar. 11, 2003, and is based upon and claims thebenefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent ApplicationP2002-069524, filed on Mar. 14, 2002, the entire contents of each ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for extractingand sharing information based on message exchange through an electronicbulletin board or a mail on Internet or Intranet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As a means for mutually exchanging information by a plurality of users,a mailing list using an electronic mail, an electronic bulletin boardusing WWW (World Wide Web) and a chat, are widely used. In the mailinglist, a plurality of electronic mails are collected and collectivelysent as a message to all members. In the electronic bulletin board, aspace to jointly own information is set on a network, and a plurality ofregistered users or anonymous users can freely enter a message. In thechat or online chat room, in the same way of the electronic bulletinboard, the space to jointly own information is set and a text messagecan be exchanged in real time.

In a communication means aiming at message exchange of many users suchas the mailing list, the electronic bulletin board and the chat, amessage related to a topic in which a majority of participants isinterested is often exchanged. In this case, a group of users whoexchange an electronic message with common purpose or interest is called“a community”.

In an information exchange system on the network, if the number ofmessages to exchange becomes large, a user often misses importantinformation included in the message or it is difficult for the user tounderstand the contents appeared or discussed over a plurality ofmessages. Accordingly, a system for extracting predetermined informationincluded in the plurality of messages and for preserving as informationresource different from the plurality of messages is proposed.

For example, as a method for extracting schedule data from informationof personally received electronic mail based on a rule to extract dailyevent and for presenting the schedule data, Japanese Patent Disclosure(Kokai) PH9-269940 “Device for Extracting Date or the like”, and“Extraction of Schedules and T0-P0 Items from E-mail Messages byIdentifying Messages Structures and Using Language Expressions” (Athesis of Information Processing Society, Vol. 40, No. 10, pp.3694-3705, 1999), are known. Furthermore, as a method for extractingdate information from an information source except for the mail and fordisplaying the date information in a calendar format, Japanese PatentDisclosure (Kokai) P2000-215213 “Method and System for Preparing Tablebased on Distributed Type Documents” is known. Furthermore, in thecommunity system, as a method for preserving document informationcorresponding to a plurality of messages in order to manage informationapt to be embedded in the message, Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai)P2002-140344 “Method and Device for Document Management” is known.

In such a communication system in which a plurality of users exchangeand jointly own the message, it is difficult for the user to rememberwhich message includes important information in case of necessary theimportant information, and the user must repeatedly read a large numberof messages in case of information to be often referred. However, incase of jointly owning a simple retrieval result, reutility is scarcebecause the presentation format is simple and unnecessary informationoften mixes.

Furthermore, important information exists in the message, in addition todate information such as a meeting program or a schedule, arranged bycollecting other's comment or reply for a topic or a question, andarranged by collecting a predetermined expression or format part (suchas URL (Uniform Resource Locator) accessible by WWW and mail address)included in the message.

On the other hand, if each user personally arranges the important partincluded in information such as the mail exchanged by communicationamong a plurality of users, operation efficiency is bad. In addition tothis, an important event (information or status) cannot be jointly ownedamong the users communicating each other because important informationis different for each user. Furthermore, even if collected informationis jointly owned by disclosure, it is necessary for the user to checkpermission of inspection for the collected information or permission ofreference for information (such as the mail from which the importantitem is extracted).

The above-mentioned problem does not occur when each user simplyarranges information from personal mails. However, the above-mentionedproblem occurs in the community system in which a plurality of usersexchanges and jointly owns the message. Accordingly, a system for easilygenerating an important information extraction rule and an extractionresult, and for jointly owning the extraction rule and the extractionresult, is necessary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus andmethod for extracting and sharing information able to easily create theinformation extraction rule and to jointly own the extraction resultinformation in the community.

According to aspects of the present invention, there is provided anapparatus for extracting and sharing information, comprising: a messageexchange unit configured to receive a first message from a user anddistribute the first message in a community in which a plurality ofusers participates; a message memory configured to store the firstmessage received by said message exchange unit; an extraction rulememory configured to store an extraction rule applicable for the firstmessage, the extraction rule including an extraction pattern, anextraction target and a display format; an information extraction unitconfigured to extract information from the message stored in saidmessage memory by referring to the extraction rule; an extraction resultmemory configured to store extraction result information by saidinformation extraction unit; an extraction result editing unitconfigured to edit the extraction result information stored in saidextraction result memory; and a message generation unit configured togenerate a second or editing message representing editing to theextraction result information.

Further in accordance with another aspect of the present invention,there is also provided a method for extracting and sharing information,comprising: receiving a first message from a user in a community inwhich a plurality of users participates; storing the first messagereceived in a message memory; extracting information from the firstmessage stored in the message memory by referring to an extraction rule,the extraction rule including an extraction pattern, an extractiontarget and a display format; storing extraction result information in anextraction result memory; editing the extraction result informationstored in the extraction result memory; and generating a second orediting message representing editing of the extraction resultinformation.

Further in accordance with another aspect of the present invention,there is also provided a computer program product, comprising: acomputer readable program code embodied in said product for causing acomputer to extract and share information, said computer readableprogram code having: a first program code o receive a first message froma user in a community in which a plurality of users participates; asecond program code to store the first message received in a messagememory; a third program code to extract information from the firstmessage stored in the message memory by referring to an extraction rule,the extraction rule including an extraction pattern, an extractiontarget and a display format; a fourth program code to store extractionresult information in an extraction result memory; a fifth program codeto edit the extraction result information stored in the extractionresult memory; and a sixth program code to generate a second or editingmessage representing editing of the extraction result information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the apparatus for extracting and sharinginformation according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of system concept of the apparatus forextracting and sharing information according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D are schematic diagrams of community managementinformation stored in a community management information memory of FIG.1.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are schematic diagrams of extraction rule managementdata stored in the community management information memory of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of processing of the apparatus for extracting andsharing information according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 is an example of a community explanation screen of the apparatusfor extracting and sharing information according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 7 is an example of a bulletin board screen of the apparatus forextracting and sharing information according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 8 is an example of a message creation screen of the apparatus forextracting and sharing information according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 9 is an example of an editing screen of an information extractionlist of the apparatus for extracting and sharing information accordingto one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of creation processing of new extraction rule ofthe apparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of editing processing of the extraction rule ofthe apparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is an example of an extraction rule editing screen of theapparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is an example of the extraction rule of the apparatus forextracting and sharing information according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 14 is an example of a standard pattern of date information of theapparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is an example of an extraction pattern display screen of theextraction rule of the apparatus for extracting and sharing informationaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 16A and 16B are application examples of the extraction pattern ofthe apparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart of display processing of the extraction resultof the apparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is an example of an information extraction screen of theapparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is an example of a data format of the extraction result of theapparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is an example of an extraction result display screen of theapparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is another example of the information result display screen ofthe apparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a flow chart of editing processing of the extraction resultof the apparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 23 is an example of an extraction result editing screen of theapparatus for extracting and sharing information according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is an example of a change screen of the contents of anextraction result item of the apparatus for extracting and sharinginformation according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is an example of a message creation screen of the extractionresult editing of the apparatus for extracting and sharing informationaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is an example of the extraction result information withcorrection information of the apparatus for extracting and sharinginformation according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is an example of a reply message including the correctioninformation of the apparatus for extracting and sharing informationaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will beexplained by referring to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the apparatus for extracting and sharinginformation according to one embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 1, a community management information memory 8 stores communitymanagement information to manage community of users, such as a communityname and member components or users belonging to the community. Forexample, information that some user belongs to which community is storedas part of the community management information.

An access control unit 7 decides whether new or changed informationmanaged in the community exists by using the community managementinformation, and executes registration, acquirement and changeprocessing of such information.

Message information exchanged in the community is received by a messageexchange unit 2 and stored in a message memory 9 through the accesscontrol unit 7. Furthermore, the message exchange unit 2 receives amessage from each member of the community, registers the message in themessage memory 9 and distributes the registered message to each memberof the community.

An extraction rule editing unit 4 prepares a means for editing theextraction rule. This editing result is stored in an extraction rulememory 10. The extraction rule includes “an extraction pattern”, “anextraction target” and “a display format”.

An information extraction unit 6 reads a group of messages as theextraction target from the message memory 9 at predetermined timing,extracts a part matched with the extraction pattern from each message,and stores the extraction result in an extraction result memory 11.

An extraction result editing unit 3 acquires the extraction resultindicated by the user from the extraction result memory 11, and executesoperation such as addition, correction or deletion for the extractionresult. Furthermore, the extraction result editing unit 3 changes theextraction rule based on change of the extraction result or necessity.The modified extraction rule and modified extraction result arerespectively stored in the extraction rule memory 10 and the extractionresult memory 11.

If new information is added to the extraction result, a messagegeneration unit 5 generates a message (generally referred to as anediting message) including the contents of the new information. Thismessage is also stored in the message memory 9. In this case, it ispossible to select whether the message is distributed to each member ofthe community.

A community information display 1 is a means for displaying informationmanaged by the community under a control of the access control unit 7.Concretely, the community management information, the contents of themessage, the extraction rule and the extraction result, are selectivelydisplayed.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing relationship between the messageand the extraction result in a system of extracting and sharinginformation according to one embodiment of the present invention. Agroup of messages 200˜209 is typically registered messages in onecommunity. Each extraction rule 220˜222 registered in the one communityis different. A part matched with the extraction pattern described ineach extraction rule is extracted from the messages 200˜209. Forexample, predetermined parts 211, 212, 214, 218 are respectivelyextracted from each message 200, 201, 205, 207 by referring to theextraction rule 220, and the extraction result 230 is obtained. Eachextraction result 230˜232 is respectively generated in correspondencewith each extraction rule 220˜222. If this extraction result is editedby the user (manual modification of extraction result 240), a messagerepresenting the editing is generated if necessary (generation ofmessage 241) and registered in a community of the object.

In the community management information stored in the communitymanagement information memory 8, FIG. 3A shows one example of user data,FIG. 3B shows one example of community data, FIG. 3C shows one exampleof belonging relation data, and FIG. 3D shows message data. As shown inFIG. 3A, the user data is consisted of a user identifier (ID), anaccount name and a password for log-in, a user name and a mail address,each is used for system control. As shown in FIG. 3B, the community datais consisted of a community identifier (ID), a community name, anaccount name used as mail address, a type representing a participationcondition in the community, and a creation time of the community. Aparticipation condition edits in the community. For example, a “publicsystem” is a community in which all users of the system can read andwrite. Moreover, a “member system” is a community in which onlyaccessible members can read and write. In case of the member system, abelonging relation between the user and the community is represented asthe belonging relation data. As shown in FIG. 3C, the belonging relationdata is consisted of the belonging relation between the user ID and thecommunity ID, and a distribution method of information from thecommunity to the user.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3D, the message data is consisted of anidentifier (ID) of registered message in the community, a title of themessage, a parent identifier (ID) of parent message for which themessage is registered as a reply, a community identifier (ID) of thecommunity in which the message is registered, a creator identifier (ID)of a user who created the message, and a creation time of the message.An entity data including a main sentence of the message is stored in themessage memory 9 for each message ID.

FIGS. 4A and 4B shows extraction rule management data stored in thecommunity management information memory 8. As shown in FIG. 4A,extraction rule data is consisted of an identifier (ID) of an extractionrule, a creator identifier (ID) of the user who created the extractionrule, a name of the extraction rule, a community identifier (ID) of thecommunity in which the extraction rule is registered, a last update timeof the extraction rule, and the latest application time when theextraction rule is applied to the message. Furthermore, as shown in FIG.4B, application relation data of extraction rule is consisted of a pairof an extraction rule identifier (ID) and a message identifier (ID) fromwhich the extraction result is created by using the extraction rule.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of processing by the apparatus for extracting andsharing information according to one embodiment of the presentinvention. Hereinafter, a flow of all processing is explained byreferring to FIG. 5. First, a user who desires to utilize the system isconfirmed as a registered user (step 50). The user confirmed as theregistered user can select the community to read information (step 51).In case that the user is newly registered in the system, it is necessaryto add an entry of the user to the user data (shown in FIG. 3A) throughan adequate user interface. Next, it is decided whether the user ispermitted to access the selected community (step 52). For example, incase of a “public system” community, all user passed the userconfirmation (step 50) and can read and edit messages. However, in caseof “member system” community, it is necessary to check whether the userbelongs to the selected community by referring to the belonging relationdata (shown in FIG. 3C). The user passing this check can enter to theselected community (step 53).

Hereinafter, a series of access and operation which the user executesfor various information in the community is explained in detail. First,when display of explanation of the community is selected (YES at step501), the explanation of the community is displayed (step 510). FIG. 6shows one example of a screen of the explanation of the community. Asshown in FIG. 6, a screen to display information and explanation of theselected community is presented. In an area 1007 of communityexplanation, a community name 1005, an account name used for aconvenient mail address to the community, a type (such as “publicsystem” or “member system”), member information, a name of manager, anexplanation sentence of the community, information of creation date, aredisplayed. In addition to these, a plurality of jump buttons (links) tochange from this screen to another screen are located in another area ofthe screen. These are represented by several underlined phrases in FIG.6. In the plurality of jump buttons, by selecting a link of communitylist 1001, processing is forwarded to a screen of the communityregistered in the system.

My space 1006 is a link to display a screen for setting the user himselfwho logs in. Home 1002 is a link to this community explanation screenitself, and its underlining is omitted. Bulletin board 1003 is a link todisplay a screen of messages exchanged and stored in the community.Information extraction 1004 is a link to display an operation screen ofthe extraction result information and the extraction rule. By selectingan editing button 1008, a screen to edit the set and the explanationsentence displayed on the community explanation screen is presented.

Next, when operation of the message is selected (YES in step 502),processing is forwarded to the operation of the message (step 520). FIG.7 shows one example of a screen of the message operation. This screen isalso an example of a display in case of selecting the “bulletin board”1003 in FIG. 6. In an area 1100 of FIG. 7, a part of the messagesregistered in the community is displayed. In a line 1101 of FIG. 7, atitle and a creator's name of the message of which the contents aredisplayed at the present time are presented with an indent representinga reply relation. For example, in an area 1102 of FIG. 7, the contentsof message “Re: MONTHLY REPORT MEETING” 1101 is displayed. By selecting“collection of links” button 1103, the extraction result of relatedinformation is displayed. By selecting “new” button 1104, the user cancreate new message. Furthermore, “reply” button 1105 is the same as the“new” button 1104 and the user can create a reply message under acondition that the message displayed at the present time is regarded asa parent article or message. In both cases, FIG. 8 shows an example of ascreen of message creation. In the message creation screen of FIG. 8, acreator's name 1901 (non-editing by the user), a subject 1902, a mainsentence 1903 of the message, a flag 1904 to select whether informationis newly extracted from this article (non-selection for default), a“send” button 1905 to register the message, and a “cancel” button 1906,exist. In the operation 1904 “new extraction based on this article”, forexample, in case that a member of the community creates the minutes ofmeeting and contributes (registers) the minutes as a message to thecommunity, a part of the message is extracted when the message iscontributed. In this case, the minutes are additionally displayed in alist of the extraction result and omission of an important item can beprevented. Detailed processing of extraction operation is explainedafterwards.

Next, when an operation of the extraction rule is selected (step 503 inFIG. 5), processing is forwarded to the operation of the extraction rulesuch as display, creation and editing of the extraction rule (step 530).New creation of the extraction rule is executed in case of reading themessage (FIG. 7), creating the message (FIG. 8), and editing a list ofthe information extraction result (FIG. 9). In any cases, as shown in aflow chart of creation of extraction rule in FIG. 10, a list ofextraction rule sets to create a new extraction rule is displayed (step60). When a user selects one of the extraction rule sets (step 61), apredetermined value of the one extraction rule set is read out (step62). The user can select the extraction rule set from a menu 1500 on theediting screen of the list of information extraction result. In theexample shown in FIG. 9, five extraction rule sets 1501 “dateinformation”, “collection of links”, “collection of questions andanswers”, “the minutes” and “call” are prepared as each extractiontarget in the menu. After one extraction rule set (“date information” inFIG. 9) is selected, processing is forwarded to editing of theextraction rule. The editing of the extraction rule is explained byreferring to a flow chart of editing of the extraction rule (FIG. 11),an example of editing screen of the extracting rule (FIG. 12) and anexample of extraction rule data (FIG. 13). In one embodiment, theextraction rule is consisted of “extraction pattern”, “extractiontarget” and “display format”. The extraction pattern representsinformation or component to be extracted from the message.

In the flow chart of editing of the extraction rule of FIG. 11, after IDof the extraction rule is set without duplication (step 70, 71), a titleof the extraction rule is set (step 72). Then, any of the detail sets(step 701), the extraction target (step 702), the extraction pattern(step 703) and the display format (step 704), is selectively set (step711˜714). In FIG. 12, ID number 1701, the title 1702 and the extractionpattern 1703 are set. The extraction target is basically a community towhich the extraction rule belongs. However, as shown in the extractiontarget 1711 of FIG. 12, a range (time period) of the message is alsorestricted as a target. As for the display format of extractioninformation, a standard display format of each extraction patternexists. In order to further customize the extraction target or thedisplay format, detail editing is executed by pushing a “detail” button1707. The detail editing is executed by directly editing the extractionrule data in FIG. 13.

As for “extraction pattern”, a plurality of typical, patterns to beextracted are prepared in order for the user to easily set. For example,“date information” is used to extract an year-month-day part (“date”), atime part (“time”), an event part (“what”) representing what happens atthe date, and a place part (“where”) representing at where the eventhappens in case that a vocabulary related to a date appears in themessage. In this case, the extraction pattern such as “date information”is called a “class”. The year-month-day part, the time part, the eventpart and the place part to be concretely extracted, are called a “classattribute”. For example, the class “date information (schedule)” of theextraction pattern includes four class attributes: “which day (date)”,“what time (time)”, “what” and “where”. As for other classes “collectionof links”, “collection of questions and answers”, “the minutes” and“call”, the class attribute to be extracted is respectively prepared.For example, “collection of links (Links)” includes two class attributes“link” and “description”, “collection of questions and answers (QA)”includes two class attributes “question” and “answer”, “the minutes”includes one class attribute “utterance (remark)”, “call” includes oneclass attribute “business (what)”. Furthermore, each class includes abasic class attribute “extraction source message (message)”. The class“message” includes the class attributes “creator (author)”, “creationdate (date)”, “ID (id)” and “parent message (parent)”. Each extractionpattern of the class corresponds to an extraction module for detailpattern matching. For example, in the extraction module to extract “dateinformation”, a function to extract various character patternrepresenting not only “mm month, dd day, yyy year” such as “Oct. 9,2001” but also “mm/dd” “mm-dd-yyy” is included for extractionyear-month-day part. By using this function, smooth pattern matching canbe executed. Furthermore, a standard pattern to certainly acquire a partcorresponding to each class attribute of the extraction pattern from themessage can be regulated. For example, as for “date information”, thestandard pattern shown in FIG. 14 is set. Concretely, as shown in FIG.14, class attribute “year-month-day (date)” and “time” are describedafter the expression “Date:”, class attribute “where” is described afterthe expression “Place:”, and class attribute “what” is described afterthe expressions “Contents:”, “Title:” and “Subject:”. By using thisstandard pattern, a value corresponding to the class attribute can beobtained. Furthermore, in case of editing the extraction pattern, inorder for the user to confirm the extraction pattern on a screen, atypical extraction pattern may be displayed as shown in FIG. 15.

FIG. 16A shows an image to extract date information from the message byusing the standard pattern and FIG. 16B shows an image to extract dateinformation from the message by using another pattern. In FIG. 16A, thecontents described after “Date:” and “Contents:” is set as the classattribute. In FIG. 16B, an inverse part 2411 is set as “date” and aparagraph 2412 including the inverse part 2412 is set as “the contents”.However, if “subject” header field of the message includes characterline above predetermined length, the characters of the header field maybe adopted as “the contents”.

Return to FIG. 5. If an operation of the extraction result is selected(step 504 in FIG. 5), the operation of the extraction result such asdisplay or editing of the extraction result is executed (step 540).Hereinafter, a process to display the extraction result includingprocessing of the information extraction unit 6 in FIG. 1 is explainedby referring to FIG. 17. First, the user selects the extraction resultto read from a list of extraction results (step 80). FIG. 18 shows oneexample of a screen of the list of extraction results. In FIG. 18,“business schedule” 1202, “list of person in charge”, “questions andanswers” and “collection of links” 1205, respectively represent a titleof the extraction result and a link to a screen to display theextraction result. Accordingly, when the user selects one title, ascreen of the extraction result corresponding to the title is displayed.A date of each title represents the latest update day of the extractionresult. For example, “Feb. 10, 2002” 1203 represent the latest updateday of “business schedule” 1202. The “update!” 1204 represents that, forexample, the extraction result was acquired within the last week, i.e.,status of the extraction result changed. Furthermore, “editing” 1201represents a link to a screen to edit a list of extraction results.

In FIG. 17, after a title of the extraction result to be displayed isselected, it is checked whether the extraction result should be updated(step 81). Concretely, after a time since the previous extractionprocessing was executed, it is checked whether new information was addedto the extraction target indicated by corresponding extraction rule orwhether the extraction rule itself was updated. In either case, it isdecided that the extraction result should be updated. If it is notnecessary to update the extraction result (step 82), by applying atemplate to display (step 87), the extraction result is arranged as aformat suitable for screen display (step 88). On the other hand, if itis necessary to update the extraction result, the extraction result isupdated by executing processing of steps 83˜86. First, each set toextract information is interpreted from the corresponding extractionrule (step 83). Concretely, for example, each set is interpreted fromextraction rule data shown in FIG. 13. In FIG. 13, the extractionpattern, the extraction target and the display format are described byXML (extensive Markup Language) format. For example, this data iscreated by the system through a GUI (Graphical User Interface) in FIG.13 or by the user's direct editing for file.

Next, the text of message of the extraction target is acquired from themessage memory 9 in FIG. 1 (step 84 in FIG. 17). Furthermore, a patternindicated by the extraction pattern in the extraction rule is extractedfrom the text of the message (step 85). In this case, by using a patternextraction module prepared for the class as each extraction pattern, theextraction result information is acquired. For example, a format of theextraction result data is created by expression of XML shown in FIG. 19,and an extracted value of class attribute is listed by unit of a pair ofthe class and the message. In case of creating the extraction resultdata, application relation data of the extraction rule shown in FIG. 4Bis updated. In this case, as shown in “collection of links” 1103 of FIG.7, a title of the extraction result information of which a part isextracted from a message is displayed on a screen of the contents of themessage.

In the data format of the extraction result shown in FIG. 19,information to display the extraction result is not included.Accordingly, by using a part indicated as the display format describedin the extraction rule (step 87), a format of the extraction result isconverted to HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) in the case of WWW. Thecreated HTML file is displayed on a screen (step 88). For example, when“business schedule” 1202 is selected on a screen shown in FIG. 18, ascreen of the extraction result shown in FIG. 20 is displayed. In thesame way, when “collection of links” 1205 is selected on the screenshown in FIG. 18, a screen of the extraction result shown in FIG. 21 isdisplayed. In upper part of the screen of the extraction result shown inFIG. 20, a link 1200 to return to a screen of the list of informationextraction shown in FIG. 18, characters 1300 representing the extractionresult and a link 1301 to display the corresponding extraction rule, arerespectively located. In addition to this, on the screen of theextraction result, a title 1202 of the extraction rule, the latestapplication time 1203 of the extraction rule, date information 1302 andschedule information 1303 extracted from the message and listed based onthe display format indicated in the extraction rule, a link 1304 to amessage of extraction source, are located.

In an editing screen of a list of information extraction shown in FIG.9, set of display order of the list of information extraction, addition,deletion, copy and unification of the extraction rule, are indicated.First, by using a check box of each extraction result, an item of theextraction rule to be edited is selected. By pushing “up” button 1503,the item of the extraction rule is moved by one unit upward on the list.By pushing “down” button 1504, the item of the extraction rule is movedby one unit downward on the list. By pushing “copy” button 1505, theitem of the extraction rule is memorized. By pushing “put” button 1506,the memorized item of the extraction rule is put on the list byautomatically changing the title. For example, when a check box of“business schedule” 1202 is indicated, “copy” button 1505 is pushed andcontinuously “put” button 1505 is pushed, for example, new extractionrule “copy of business schedule” of which the contents is the same asthe extraction rule “business schedule” except for the title is createdon the same screen. This copied extraction rule can be put on or used byanother community. Furthermore, by pushing “deletion” button 1507, theselected extraction rule is deleted. By selecting a plurality ofextraction rules and by pushing “unify” button 1508, new extraction ruleis created as unification of the plurality of extraction rules.

It is not always that the extraction result using the extraction rule isusually adequate information for the user. Accordingly, in order for theuser to manually edit a part of the extraction result or to add newinformation to the extraction result while reading the extractionresult, a means for editing the extraction result is prepared.Hereinafter, a processing of editing the extraction result is explained.FIG. 22 is a flow chart of processing of the editing of the extractionresult according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 22,the editing operation of the extraction result can be addition of anentry to the extraction result (step 90), change of the contents of anentry (step 91) or deletion of an entry (step 92). FIG. 23 shows oneexample of a screen to edit the extraction result. As shown in FIG. 23,“addition” button 1803, “change” button 1804, “deletion” button 1805,and a check box 1802 of each entry of the extraction result, arelocated. In case of adding the entry, the “addition” button 1803 ispushed. In the case of changing the contents of the entry, the check boxof one entry to be changed is indicated and the “change” button 1804 ispushed. In the case of deletion, each check box of at least one entry tobe deleted is indicated and the “deletion” button 1805 is pushed.

In the case of selecting addition or change of the entry, for example, ascreen as shown in FIG. 24 is displayed. In the screen of FIG. 24, aninput field for each item of class attribute extracted by correspondingextraction rule is located. Concretely, the user can selectively inputeach item related to date information, i.e., “date” 2001, “time” 2002,“place” 2003 and “contents” 2004. In case of selecting change of theentry, the contents of item acquired as the extraction result isdisplayed. The user inputs the contents to add or change to the inputfield (step 93 and 94 in FIG. 22). In this case, if a condition“creation of message” is valid as shown in the check box 2005 of FIG.24, the editing result is stored as a mail in the community and can bedistributed to each member of the community (step 95 in FIG. 22). Afterinputting the editing contents, by pushing “update” button 2006, acreation screen of the contents of message registration shown in FIG. 25is presented in the case of creating a message. In this case, thecontents of editing of the extraction result are generated as a part ofthe text of the message (step 96 in FIG. 22).

In FIG. 25, the user selects one from a plurality of messagedistribution methods 2100˜2102. In the case of “not post by mail” 2100,the user's created message is registered as a message of the community,but not informed by a mail. Briefly, even if each member usuallyreceives a message of the community by a mail, the contents of theupdate are not informed to each member by a mail. In the case of “usualdistribution” 2101, the update contents as a message are distributedbased on set of message distribution method of each member of thecommunity. Briefly, the update contents as a message is processed in thesame way of a usual message. In the case of “post by mail to allmembers” 2102, the update contents as a message is informed to allmembers of the community by a mail irrespective of each member's set ofdistribution method. This set 2100˜2102 of distribution method may beexecuted in a message creation screen (FIG. 8).

In FIG. 25, an area 2103 is a free description part to create a message.In the area 2103, the user who edited the extraction result can freelydescribe by himself/herself (step 97 in FIG. 22). A part 2104automatically created by the system is combined with the freedescription part 2103, and this combination contents is registered as amessage. In the case of pushing “OK” button 2105, this message isregistered in the community by the set distribution method (step 98 inFIG. 22). In this case, the message created from change or deletion ofthe extraction result is registered as a reply for an extraction sourcemessage (parent message from which the extraction result is created). Onthe other hand, in the case of indicating deletion of an entry of theextraction result, a screen to select whether the message is created isdisplayed. If the user creates the message on the screen, processing isexecuted in the same way of above-mentioned processing of messagecreation/registration.

Last, the contents of editing of the extraction result are reflected inthe corresponding extraction result date (step 99 in FIG. 22).Concretely, as shown in FIG. 26, a part 2501 to describe a correction(modification) is located in the extraction result data and separatelymanaged from the extraction result 2500 to which the extraction rule isapplied. In FIG. 26, in a tag <modify>, a matter which the extractionresult is manually modified is described. In the tag <modify>, amodification mode is indicated. As the modification mode, the entry isreplaced in case of addition or change of the extraction result and theentry is hidden in the case of deletion of the extraction result.

FIG. 27 shows an example of the case that reflection in the extractionresult is executed by a message. In the example shown in FIG. 27, Mr.Nakamura as a sender quotes Mr. Tanaka's message and changes thecontents of date information as a reply message. In this case, if theextraction rule to extract date information is applied to the replymessage, date information is extracted from both the reply message andMr. Tanaka's message. Concretely, in FIG. 27, a description 2601 “Feb.10, 2002” in quotation sentence of the reply message 2600 is alsoincluded in Mr. Tanaka's message. It often happens that the same dateinformation is doubly extracted as different information. Accordingly, aword clearly included in a quotation sentence is not extracted from themessage. Furthermore, in the contents (editing result) in whichcharacters “[change]” is located at the head of line following from thequotation part, if the item name in the contents coincides with a partof standard pattern for extraction in the quotation sentence, theextraction result of the extraction source message (parent message) isreplaced by the contents. Concretely, in FIG. 27, the extraction resultof the parent message originally including “Date: Feb. 10, 2002” 2601 isreplaced by the editing result “Date: Feb. 10, 2002, 15:0018 17:00”2602. Briefly, by creating a reply message for a parent message fromwhich the quotation sentence is extracted, the extraction result of theparent message is also changed by the editing result of the replymessage.

As mentioned-above, according to an embodiment of the present invention,in a common system in which a plurality of users exchange and jointlyown messages, the information extraction rule is easily created and theextraction result information are jointly owned by each user. As aresult, the communication can be promoted with easy arrangement formatof the messages while each user is conscious of arrangement of importantinformation in the messages afterwards. Furthermore, in addition tomeeting program or schedule information, a part to be essentiallyreferred or reused can be extracted from the messages as a documentformat.

For embodiments of the present invention, the processing of the presentinvention can be accomplished by one or more computer-executableprograms, and this program can be realized in a computer-readable memorydevice.

In embodiments of the present invention, the memory device, such as amagnetic disk, a floppy disk, a hard disk, an optical disk (CD-ROM,CD-R, DVD, and so on), an optical magnetic disk (MD, and so on) can beused to store instructions for causing a processor or a computer toperform the processes described above.

Furthermore, based on an indication of the program installed from thememory device to the computer, OS (operation system) operating on thecomputer, or MW (middle ware software), such as database managementsoftware or network, may execute one part of each processing to realizethe embodiments.

Furthermore, the memory device is not limited to a device independentfrom the computer. By downloading a program transmitted through a LAN orthe Internet, a memory device in which the program is stored isincluded. Furthermore, the memory device is not limited to one. In thecase that the processing of the embodiments is executed by a pluralityof memory devices, a plurality of memory devices may be included in thememory device. The component of the device may be arbitrarily composed.

In embodiments of the present invention, the computer executes eachprocessing stage of the embodiments according to the program stored inthe memory device. The computer may be one apparatus such as a personalcomputer or a system in which a plurality of processing apparatuses areconnected through the network. Furthermore, in the present invention,the computer is not limited to the personal computer. Those skilled inthe art will appreciate that a computer includes a processing unit in aninformation processor, a microcomputer, and so on. In short, theequipment and the apparatus that can execute the functions inembodiments of the present invention using the program are generallycalled the computer.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice of theinvention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with the true scope and spiritof the invention being indicated by the following claims.

1. An apparatus for extracting and sharing information, comprising: amessage exchange unit configured to receive a first message from one ofa plurality of users and distribute the first message to a community inwhich the plurality of users participate; a message memory configured tostore the first message received by said message exchange unit; anextraction rule memory configured to store an extraction rule includingan extraction pattern, an extraction target and a display format, theextraction pattern being used for extracting an information from thefirst message, the display format being used for displaying anextraction result of each extraction pattern; an information extractionunit configured to extract an information from the first message storedin the message memory by restricting a range of the first message withthe extraction target and by matching the first message with theextraction pattern; an extraction result memory configured to store anextraction result information by the information extraction unit; anextraction result editing unit configured to display the extractionresult information by applying the display format, and to edit theextraction result information; and a message generation unit configuredto generate a second message representing editing of the extractionresult information; wherein, when the message generation unit generatesthe second message, the message memory stores the second message as areply of the first message, and the message exchange unit sends thesecond message to the one of the plurality of users.
 2. The apparatusaccording to claim 1, further comprising an extraction rule editing unitconfigured to edit the extraction rule stored in the extraction rulememory.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, when the extraction ruleediting unit creates a new extraction rule, wherein the extraction ruleediting unit selects one of a plurality of extraction rules eachcorresponding to a predetermined set value.
 4. The apparatus accordingto claim 2 or 3, wherein the extraction rule editing unit transfers orcopies the extraction rule managed by a first community to a secondcommunity.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein theextraction rule editing unit generates a new extraction rule by unifyinga plurality of extraction rules.
 6. The apparatus according to any ofclaim 1, 2 or 3, further comprising a community information displayconfigured to present an information of the community to the pluralityof users; when the community information display presents a thirdmessage as an applicable object of the extraction rule in the community,wherein the community information display presents a list of extractionrules applied to the third message.
 7. A method for extracting andsharing information, comprising: receiving a first message from one of aplurality of users in a community in which the plurality of usersparticipate; storing the first message received in a message memory;extracting an information from the first message stored in the messagememory by referring to an extraction rule, the extraction rule includingan extraction pattern, an extraction target and a display format, theextraction pattern being used for matching with the first message, theextraction target being used for restricting a range of the firstmessage, the display format being used for displaying an extractionresult of each extraction pattern; storing an extraction resultinformation from the first message in an extraction result memory;displaying the extraction result information by applying the displayformat; editing the extraction result information; generating a secondmessage representing editing of the extraction result information;storing the second message as a reply of the first message in themessage memory; and sending the second message to the one of theplurality of users.
 8. A computer program product, comprising: acomputer readable program code embodied in the product for causing acomputer to extract and share information, the computer readable programcode having: a first program code to receive a first message from one ofa plurality of users in a community in which the plurality of usersparticipate; a second program code to store the first message receivedin a message memory; a third program code to extract an information fromthe first message stored in the message memory by referring to anextraction rule, the extraction rule including an extraction pattern, anextraction target and a display format, the extraction pattern beingused for matching with the first message, the extraction target beingused for restricting a range of the first message, the display formatbeing used for displaying an extraction result of each extractionpattern; a fourth program code to store an extraction result informationfrom the first message in an extraction result memory; a fifth programcode to display the extraction result information by applying thedisplay format; a sixth program code to edit the extraction resultinformation; a seventh program code to generate a second messagerepresenting editing of the extraction result information; an eighthprogram code to store the second message as a reply of the first messagein the message memory; and a ninth program code to send the secondmessage to the one of the plurality of users.